India has successfully test-fired its surface-to-surface Agni-V long-range Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, the Indian Defense Ministry said in a tweet Thursday. The nuclear-capable Agni-V is believed to be India’s most advanced ICBM missile. It was fired Thursday morning India time on Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha.

North Korea has agreed to send a 140-member orchestra to the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea next month.

The two sides are discussing plans for the North's delegation at Panmunjom village in the demilitarised zone (DMZ), also known as the truce village.

North Korea announced last week that it would send a delegation to the Games in the South - easing months of tensions.

China on Monday started using new standard to measure water content in the imported pipeline crude oil from Russia to better safeguard China’s economic interest, state energy giant — CNPC — said on Monday. Chinese quality inspectors found that the Russian way of measuring the water content showed a much lower quantity in the crude oil than it actually carried, CNPC said;

Philippine lower house lawmakers voted on Tuesday to convene the chamber as a constitutional assembly, looking to amend the 30-year-old charter and shift to a system of federal government, allowing the president up to two terms in office. The switch to a federal system was one of the key planks of President Rodrigo Duterte’s election campaign, aimed to remedy what he saw as neglect by a Manila-centric political establishment that has left provinces in perpetual poverty.

Key powers involved in Syria's civil war have criticised US plans to help an allied Kurdish-led militia set up a 30,000-strong "border security force".

Turkey's president vowed to "suffocate" efforts to begin training members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and create what he called a "terror army".

The second floor of the Indonesia Stock Exchange tower has collapsed, injuring more than two dozen people and forcing a chaotic evacuation, according to media reports. “We are still investigating the cause, but for now our priorities are the casualties,” Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono told Metro TV.